1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fastening mechanisms for electronic devices, and more particularly, to a fastening mechanism for fastening side casings of a notebook PC.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of notebook type PCs has become commonplace and popular. As such, designs of consumer electronic devices gradually become a key factor in marketing. FIGS. 4A and 4B depict the design of side frames that holds the casing of a conventional notebook PC and this part is exemplified by a keyboard module of the notebook PC, wherein FIG. 4A is a schematic view showing the upper and lower casings 60, 61 of the keyboard module assembled with and the side frame 65, and FIG. 4A is a schematic view of a complete unit after assembly.
The prior art design is implemented by disposing a preset printing circuit board and computer elements in between the upper and lower casings 60, 61 of the keyboard module that are to be combined and assembled together. Also, three side frames 65 are used to respectively connect three sides of the keyboard module by means of a hooking member disposed on side frames 65, thereby fastening the upper and lower casings 60, 61 of the keyboard module and protecting the printing circuit board and computer elements installed therein.
Since such prior art design employs hooking means for assembly, when a user intends to disassemble the keyboard module for the purposes of maintenance or replacements of spare parts, it has to be done in a reverse and similar manner so as to loosen the bonding of three side frames by releasing hooking members, which is not only laborious and inconvenient, but is also likely to cause distortion or breakage of the hooking members due to inappropriate forces exerted that may lead to defective side frames as a result. Besides, if these side frames have been assembled and disassembled many times, the hooking members thereof suffer a lot of wear and tear due to the strength and pressure exerted and the reliability and life span of usage is decreased.
Moreover, such a side frame design is also inherent with the drawback of insecurity. Thus it often necessitates addition of other fastening mechanisms to reinforce the connection between side frames, further inconveniencing assembling and disassembling of side frames, which cannot satisfy the demands of most consumers in practical use and has posed a challenge and bottleneck to designers of electronic devices.
Therefore, there exists a need to develop a novel fastening mechanism that can improve on the drawbacks of prior art techniques to thereby allow the users to conveniently assemble and disassemble side frames of a notebook PC at ease.